After playing Borderlands, I was hard pressed to remember more than two or three of the game’s music tracks. After starting up the OST for a listen, however, I began to think I had been mistaken in writing off the soundtrack as forgettable. That’s because the first few tracks are actually decent. The rest? Forgettable, just like I… remembered.
Before the soundtrack degrades into a percussion orgy, the listener is treated to a few decently atmospheric and original tracks. The “Prelude” is pretty flaccid, but “Welcome to Fyrestone” really sets a mood appropriate to the game world, not bad outside of the game either for those who enjoy a lonely sort of acoustic sound. “Enter Skag Gully” manages to convey a sense of danger, and “Fighting Off the Skags” uses alien sounds to amplify the oddity of some of Pandora’s wildlife. From there, however, it’s all forgettable.
“Removing the Bandit Threat” is a fun combat track, but there need only be one like it. Tracks like “Trash the Bandits” and “Trash the Bandits Some More” sufficiently represent the theme of most of the Borderlands OST (and the game itself): repetition. Not only are the tracks often impossible to differentiate between, they’re also mundane and boring. Percussion takes the forefront, and both in and out of the game, it does nothing for the mood or to stir one’s emotions. Even the final boss theme, “Destroy the Destroyer,” can’t be remembered a minute after hearing it. There are a few bonus tracks, but nothing that makes this OST worth a purchase, or even a listen.
Unless you are an unimaginably ardent fan of Borderlands and think the music will help you recall all the great times you had playing the game when you’re away from your console, skip this OST.
